One sentence from Hollywood that automatically turns me off a movie...

[Archae]

TV-movie or Hollywood feature.

"Based on a true story."

There might be like one actual fact in the movie, while the rest is total bullshit...I mean "artistic license."

The latest being the Michael Bay fiasco, "13 Hours."

The worst I can think of is "The Amityville Horror" or "JFK."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. "JFK" was mostly fiction, but it was really a good movie as movies go.

I just considered it to be a made-up story, and as such I really enjoyed it.

[Archae]

2. "Mostly?"

Well, it did have two facts in it.

Kennedy was shot and killed.
Garrison put Clay Shaw on trial.

*ALL* of the rest was Oliver Stone bullshit.

As to "Amityville Horror," they are *STILL* making horror movies based on that made-up story about the house.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Sure, it was almost all made up, but it was well-written and well-acted.

It was about as factual as Star Wars but so what? Good entertainment. I like Oliver Stone's movies, even the ones that are nuts. I feel the same way about The Amityville Horror - it's just a fun horror movie.

[bigwillq]

5. JFK was a good movie

I thought it was interesting.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. JFK is mostly fact, it's the story of Jim Garrison, not the story of JFK nor of his murder.

Jim Garrison and his case are presented factually as they happened, and happen they did. It's not a made up story. What people told Garrison might have been true or not but the movie is about what he heard and what he concluded from it and how that affected him.

[Archae]

12. Bull...shit.

I listed what was accurate in that movie.

Even that "great speech" was Stone's fiction.

[CBGLuthier]

11. People do not get the point of JFK. It was about our fascination with the killing

Last edited Tue Dec 29, 2015, 11:39 PM - Edit history (1)

and the possible conspiracies. Not a documentary about the Kennedy assassination. That was why it had damn near every theory ever dreamed of crammed into it.

[Iggo]

37. I hope these people never see Inglorious Basterds.

They're gonna go, "Hey, wait a minute..."

[Beartracks]

4. Here's mine...

"... and a surprise twist you'll never see coming."

Granted, that's more of a spoiler from reviewers, but still.

=============

[NuclearDem]

6. Go see the Gods of Egypt trailer for everything I hate about movies.

[RockaFowler]

29. This right here!!

[Nye Bevan]

7. Mine is "The Feel-Good Movie of the Year" (nt)

[Katashi_itto]

8. We are using it for our film "I Was a Teenage Alien Mutant Cybog"

Based on true events

[Volaris]

27. So you were a cyborg then lol. Huh..who knew?

[Katashi_itto]

28. All based on true events! Our Trailer

[SusanCalvin]

10. That's mine as well.

It drives me nuts that some people don't believe a reasonable adherence to facts is a REQUIREMENT for "based on a true story." Otherwise, please call it the fiction it is.

[anigbrowl]

22. A 'reasonable adherence to the facts' is a moveable feast

Dramatic films are simplified by necessity. You would die of boredom otherwise. Even documentaries are extremely selective, by necessity. I work in film and have written a number of feature screenplays, some based on real life, some completely fictional. I somewhat prefer purely fictional writing as I don't have to justify my dramatic choices to trivia nerds. Real life is boring and messy, that's why you pay for more meaningful and dramatic renditions of it at the theater or on your TV.

[SusanCalvin]

31. I'm not talking about condensing, etc.

I'm talking about sheer, provable untruths. Which does happen.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. "Spotlight" was awesome... the story of the Boston globe team that exposed cardinal law

True story

[Archae]

14. But...

How much of it was factual, and how much was "artistic license?" (Hollywoodese for bullshit)

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. There's were no romances or violence. Just a walk thru of how the journalist put together

The story

[Beaverhausen]

19. Films are one thing, documentaries are another.

I think it's assumed some events didn't happen exactly as portrayed in a film based on a true story.

[kwassa]

15. A worse phrase. "Inspired By True Events".

Which means there may be no true aspects of the story at all.

[Juicy_Bellows]

17. Yeah, mine as well.

Every movie ever made was in some way inspired by true events.

[ProfessorGAC]

26. I'm The Opposite

To me, that seems more honest. It doesn't even imply a true retelling of an event. Merely that a dramatic/cinematic work was assembled based upon what actually happened at some point in time.

That's sort of what they said about American Hustle. And at the beginning of the movie they have a super that says "Some of this stuff actually happened."

Well, ABSCAM really did happen and a lot of politicians got caught in the web. Other than that, Russell is just spinning a nice story with a superb cast.

[Snobblevitch]

16. This phrase, or something similar,

appears at the beginning of "Fargo", both the movie and the TV series. A few years ago, a mentally ill Japanese woman showed in Fargo looking for the money that was buried in the snow.

When the movie came out, I remember reading stories about how the people of Brainerd were bothered about how they were portrayed in the film. I don't know what the people of Bemidji or Luverne think about Fargo.

[Initech]

21. Yeah I love Fargo and I have been wondering about that.

[REP]

39. The movie has elements of the Helle Crafts murder

But neither the movie nor the series are based on actual events.

[Initech]

20. Mine is "the best movie of the year!!!" in January.

[anigbrowl]

23. January is near the end of the year in the film industry

The Oscars are in late February, and that's Christmas and New Year for the film business. March is the beginning of the film new year. This is why a lot of 'classy' films get released in early winter, and why August is the best month to see foreign movies if you are in NY or LA - to be considered for an Oscar nomination, a movie has to play in one of those cities for a week 6 months before the awards ceremony, so in August foreign film distributors run around renting screens for films you've never heard of in order to be eligible for a nomination, and then build the marketing campaign depending on whether or not they get one (because a nomination for 'best foreign language film' is worth much more on a poster than a good review in a foreign newspaper, no matter how popular the film was in France or China or wherever).

There's a book about this called 'Open Wide' if you'd like to learn about the business side of the film industry, but you'll probably find it deathly tedious unless you work in it yourself.

Actually, most industries work this way. If you are ever taking up a job in a new field, find out when the major industry conventions/trade shows are. One of them will usually be a lot bigger than the others, and that's the one where the largest number of new products or whatever are unveiled. Everything else in the business revolves around that, and you'll often find that it lines up with the financial year of one or more of the leading vendors in that industry.

[raccoon]

24. "Fargo" was another candidate for the worst. nt

[Adrahil]

33. Fargo is awesome!

The "true story" bit is an affectation.

[lame54]

36. the phrase was used ironically...

it was complete fiction but they wanted to set the viewer up

brilliant

[Oneironaut]

25. Don't forget closing credit title cards that are complete bull crap.

"We just made this up, but here are some title cards to make it look like this is actually a true story."

[hatrack]

30. It might be "In A World . . . " for me, which I guess explains why don't go to the movies much . . .

And, speaking of trailers, one of my favorites . . .

[DetlefK]

32. "In a world..." means that the writers don't know how to tell a story.

In a good story, you don't start with world-building. You start with a character and the viewer/reader experiences the world through that character.

Just imagine Futurama told like this:
"In a world, 1000 years in the future, with aliens and robots and mutants and spaceships, one pizza-delivery-boy strives to..."

[clarice]

34. "You got the right Ta-Ta...but the wrong Ho-Ho" nt

[lame54]

35. Fargo used it to great effect

[WinkyDink]

38. So IDGI. Would you prefer a dry factual account in a movie? That's called a "documentary." On PBS.